Today was my last day of work for the next month--yay!!! I will still have to be on call, keep up with email, etc. but the day-to-day grind has come to a halt for a while.
Me being me, I have a list of things to do, during my time off. One of the more pressing items is renewing our home study. Our home study was approved September 4, 2014. So I assumed we wouldn't have to touch it until maybe late August. Uh, yeah, that's not how it works.
Similar to the initial home study it is a multi-month process filled with background checks, forms, updated reference letters, and a visit from our social worker. Yes, having our life examined under a microscope is yet another way our path to parenthood is significantly different from just about everyone we know, but I honestly don't mind this particular difference as I believe this process is designed to do what's best for children by helping to ensure they are placed in a safe, stable home.
We like our social worker. She is an adoptive parent herself and was able to put us fully at ease, while at the same time asked us very personal questions. The answers to which our friends and family may not even know the responses of. Also, the parts of the process seem less intimidating the second time around. And yes, completing background checks, physicals, financial reports, etc is certainly not what I am going to refer to as the fun part of my summer vacation; however, being able to give the first parents of our child(ren) the peace of mind that not only do we seem like nice and stable people, but have a 25 page report that backs up this fact, makes this process worthwhile.
Interestingly, there is an excellent change that not a single soul (other than us) will ever actually read the contents of our home study. Just the fact that we are approved is sufficient. Our social worker did a nice job on the first one. Maybe I will have to put the updated version out as a coffee table book so that her work not be done in vain...
No comments:
Post a Comment